


Rogue Smuggler

by Mistresserin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Supergirl (TV 2015), Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Diana is a badass, Droids, F/F, Getting to Know Each Other, Injured Kara Danvers, Kara Danvers Is A Badass, Kara has a BB unit, Mandalorians (Star Wars), Nite Owls, Other, Pre-Relationship, Prequel, Space Ships, Star Wars - Freeform, kara is a hacker, smugglers, superwonder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29122089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistresserin/pseuds/Mistresserin
Summary: Mandalorian Di'Ann Am'Zen is after a device recovered recently from a derelict Star Destroyer that is now in the possession of the infamous Guild of Smugglers and Pirates of Port City. Taking possession of that device might change everything for her people and she wants it badly but in order to have it, she has to break into the Guild's building and make it out of there undetected. There's just one problem that she's not yet aware of: she's not the only one who is after the device.ORKara is a cheeky smuggler operating in the Outer Rim and Diana is a no-nonsense Mandalorian Nite Owl and they're both after the same thing.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Diana (Wonder Woman), Kara Danvers/Diana (Wonder Woman)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 56





	Rogue Smuggler

**Rogue Smuggler**

**A Star Wars Short Story**

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Ten years passed since the defeat of the First Order’s massive fleet in Exegol, but the sinister regime was still not yet eradicated. Throughout the galaxy, skirmishes with the First Order remnants became less frequent as more of them fell prey to the New Republic and their newly created armed branch, the Frontier Rangers.

But somewhere in the Outer Rim, there is a rumor that a powerful device was found in a derelict Star Destroyer, and its new owner was taking bids.

Many were after that device, but none wanted it more than the Nite Owls of the Mandalorian Colony of Nylanda, only they weren’t willing to pay the high price set by the Lord of the Guild of Port City.

******

The Guild, Port City,

Outer Rim

MACROBINOCULARS ZOOMED IN ON THE INDIVIDUALS standing in front of the heavy looking gates that protected the smuggler’s run, known around Port City as The Guild. Many smugglers and other criminals of the Outer Rim were members of the Guild. Hidd Seru, its ruthless leader, gave them no choice: either join him and share a percentage of their ill-gained profits or risk being sent to Osne, the inhospitable desert south of the city. Spending the rest of their miserable lives mining for Sansanna Spice was a very profitable side business for Seru but a terrible fate for those who dared say no to him.

From where she was hiding behind the dense line of Okrus, the imposing yellow trees, with their broad, deep red and bright orange foliage, Di’Ann Am’Zen could see three individuals standing in front of the heavy-looking gates but couldn’t identify them. It was too far away from where they stood, and trying to get closer to have a better look while it was still daylight was too risky. She didn’t want to be caught roaming this fetid and forsaken city, and for that, she needed to wait for the dead of night, when the town tended to quiet down, and everyone was more… relaxed.

A long press on the side of her helmet and the zoom increased to its maximum. The image was a bit blurry, and she had to squint her eyes, she could now make two Trandoshans heavily armed, guarding the doors. A woman, apparently Human, was standing before them with her arms crossed over her chest, dwarfed in size by the large reptilian humanoids. The woman seemed to be trying to convince them of something, but whatever it was, they weren’t falling for it. She couldn’t see her features from this far, not even with full zoom, but from her attire and the pair of blasters hanging from her hip holsters, she had to be another smuggler. The city was infested with criminals from all over the galaxy.

Di’Ann watched as the woman removed a red object from the canvas bag she carried flung across her torso and offered it to the Trandoshans. The one on the left, the shorter of the two, reached for the object, but the taller one blocked him, standing in his way, and they argued. The woman, who she could tell was fair-haired, kept on talking to them, pointing to the object until the one on the left snatched it from her hand and took it to his mouth, tilting his head back. Cleaning his mouth with the back of his scaly hand, he handed what she now assumed was alcohol to his buddy. The other one made a show of examining the bottle and sniffing its contents before taking a sip, while the woman observed with both hands planted on her hips. She seemed impatient. The reluctant green humanoid finally nodded at whatever she was telling him and stepped away to let her pass, opening the gate by pressing his clawed hand on a side sensor. Now _that_ was useful information. Whoever this woman was, she bribed her way in and, inadvertently, just helped her figure out how to get inside without too much of a fuzz. She was sure that the bottle would be empty before the night was over, and all she had to do was wait.

##

It happened a lot faster than she expected, and she couldn’t help but think that the woman from earlier had planned it. She knew about the lockout rule from an informant: none of the Crew members, those who worked closely with Hidd Seru, would get in or out of the building after sundown. It was a way of controlling his crew members’ whereabouts under the guise of protection.

Before getting any closer to the build, Di’Ann sent a transmission to the security camera outside, making sure it was disabled with a loop virus that would spread to all compound cameras in a matter of seconds. Kneeling beside the unconscious humanoid, her gloved fingers wrapped around the red bottle’s neck and brought it closer to her helmet for analysis. It was still half full. It took seconds for the HUD to display the composition of the liquid inside: Kijimi moonshine, a potent alcoholic beverage and highly valued after the destruction of the planet almost ten years prior by the First Order. It was also heavily laden with hypnocane, a highly effective tranquilizer. These two wouldn’t be up anytime soon.

“Now, why does a crew member need to drug the gate guards, hmm?” Di’Ann mumbled to herself, her voice sounding soft and disembodied from inside her helmet.

Discarding the bottle by the snoring Trandoshan’s side, she pulled her dark cloak over her head, hiding her helmet from view as she looked around. A soft command brought up a thermal scanner, showing no one on the outside of the building. Satisfied, she stepped over the large humanoid and grabbed his arm with both hands, dragging him over to the gate sensor. Pulling the snoring humanoid up to a sitting position, she grabbed his thick wrist and pulled it up to the sensor, but she couldn’t reach the three-clawed fingers to it.

Cursing softly under her breath, she looked around one more time, making sure that she was, in fact, still alone. Spotting a metal stool by the sensor, she grabbed the large and heavy-looking Trandoshan from under his arms. Squatting behind him, she then pushed him up until he was sitting on the stool and slumped against the wall, a low growl escaping without permission with the effort of lifting the heavy humanoid off the ground. Grabbing his hand without care, she pressed it against the sensor. There were a click and swoosh sound, and the doors opened.

Sighing in relief, she had the thermal scan and the compound’s layout pop up at once. A quick analysis of the layout told her it was no different from the other smuggler’s hideouts she had broken into in the past. Maybe it was a default layout for criminals, but that was irrelevant now. What mattered was she had an idea where she needed to go, and the faint signal her gear was picking up from up ahead was pointing in the right direction.

Sneaking inside, she dragged the heavy Trandoshan inside and closed the doors behind them. She would need him to help open the door from the inside. Leaving the doors open might draw unwanted attention. Making sure the humanoid was left ready to help her, Di’Ann drew her blaster out of its holster and made her way through the corridor. Following the 3D layout displayed in front of her proved to be relatively uneventful. In the middle of the night, no one was paying attention to who was wandering through the corridors. They were either asleep or too drunk for that, which worked perfectly for her.

She followed the signal until she found herself in a large circular storage room, with crates and machinery of all sorts scattered around and several metal doors dotting the circular wall. The signal was coming from inside the central chamber. A part of her was glad she had found no trouble getting in this far, but the other part of her, the one that was experienced and didn’t believe in good luck, was on hyper-alert. Either these smugglers were incredibly sloppy, or something else was afoot because there was no way that the storage room wouldn’t have guards outside. Checking inside the room with the thermal scan, one intense red human form popped on her screen. Growing more suspicious, she looked around the large room. Her thermal scan picked on two forms slumped behind a pile of large boxes to the left, their core still red, but their extremities were starting to turn into a fading orange. They were dead.

Quickly making her way to the bodies, she searched their pockets until she found their keycard, hoping it would open the door she needed. She took the electronic key out and checked the perimeter one last time before heading for the closed door. The person inside the room was standing, unmoving, but she knew the moment she opened that door, it would alert the person inside, and Di’Ann would make herself a target, and she couldn’t have that. The only way she could get inside safely to get what she needed was to rely on the thermal scan. It wouldn’t tell her where the person was facing, but she would know if it moved or drew a weapon. The woman from earlier came to mind. She had a feeling she was the one inside.

Gripping her blaster harder, with her eyes trained on the red form in her HUD, Di’Ann inserted the keycard in the sensor on the wall, and the door slid to the side with a soft sound. The moment the door clicked open, the red form in her HUD ran to the left of the room, crouching. Never taking her eyes from her target, Di’Ann stepped inside carefully, spotting the wall of crates onto the left, where the form was hiding behind. The door closed behind her automatically. Roaming the room with her eyes and scanner, she noticed that aside from the crates and a rectangular metal column in the center, the room was devoid of any objects.

Di’Ann pointed the blaster at the crates. “Throw your weapons away and come out with your hands up. And bring the device with you.” When the woman did not move, Di’Ann sighed. It was never easy. “I will not ask again. Not one has to get hurt.”

“All right,” came the soft voice from behind the crates. “Throwing my weapons now.” Two blasters slid on the floor, only stopping when they hit the rectangular column. Di’Ann pushed them further away with her foot. “Coming out now.”

Holding one hand up, a woman emerged from behind the crates, a cylindrical object held tightly under her arm. She recognized the woman’s clothes and canvas bag before her: this was the smuggler who bribed the guards to get inside. The woman gave her a disarming smile, her blue eyes twinkling. As tall as she was, athletically built, blonde hair caught up in a messy bun and vivid blue eyes, the woman was stunning, and Di’Ann couldn’t stop staring.

“I’m sure we can make a deal. It seems like we want the same thing.”

Forcing herself to shake off the hypnotic effect of those blue eyes that seemed to be staring right at her, Di’Ann motioned with her blaster to the floor. “Leave the device on the floor and step back.”

“Look, I know what you are. You’re a Nite Owl, a Mandalorian, and I know why you want this.” The woman lowered her hand slowly and deliberately. “We can help each other. Can we—”

Of course, she knew who she was; her armor and helmet were a dead giveaway. Di’Ann raised her blaster, her intention clear. “Drop it.”

The woman sighed. “Fine, but you’re making a mistake.”

But the warrior kept pointing the blaster at her. She really didn’t want to hurt the woman, but she would if she kept stalling. She had to leave this place fast, and she was already wasting precious time. Resigned, the blonde took the cylinder onto her hands and slowly lowered it to the floor. Just as it touched the ground, the woman threw herself at the Mandalorian, catching her at the waist. The force of her momentum caught Di’Ann by surprise, and she was helpless to stop her fall, with the woman’s body falling heavily on top of hers. Her hand hit the ground with such force, her blaster dropped off her hand.

Before she could even think about getting the woman off herself, a fist connected with her ribs, right between the breast and backplates; it knocked the wind out of her. Di’Ann curled onto her side, gritting her teeth to keep from crying out at the intense pain. _Shab!_ But even in her pained state, she could hear the woman scrambling to her feet to escape. _Oh, no, you won’t!_ Kicking out with her feet, Di’Ann felt a grin of satisfaction shape her lips as her booted feet connected with solid flesh. The woman cried out in pain before she fell with a heavy thud.

She forced herself up onto her knees, her left hand pressing against her side. How did this annoying woman know precisely where to hit? Still reeling from the throbbing in her left side, Di’Ann looked around for her weapon. She didn’t care how beautiful the woman was, she was going to shoot her! From the corner of her eye, she caught on movement. Already half-standing, the annoying woman was moving again and ready to launch herself at the closest weapon. Acting on instinct, Di’Ann raised her left arm with a pained grunt and punched a button on the side of the vambrace. It fired a shockwave that caught the woman full on the back, throwing her hard against the crates and the wall behind it. Reaching for her second blaster would have taken a second longer, and she had none to waste.

The blonde slid down the wall, unconscious, a trickle of blood running down her neck from a cut to her hairline, the impact messing up her loose bun. Breathing hard from her sudden movement, Di’Ann pressed her hand against her side once more and shifted to her feet, her eyes still glued on the unconscious blonde. Picking up her blaster from the floor and then the cylinder, the Mandalorian glared at the woman for a moment. There was something about her that was just nagging her… Surely, she wasn’t taking pity on the beautiful smuggler. She had made her choice, and she was lucky she was still alive.

Shaking her head, Di’Ann made her way out of the room, making sure to scan the outside before leaving. She didn’t want any surprises. On her way out, she blasted the door’s entrance control panel, effectively trapping the woman inside - one less thing to worry about.

##

“Ow…” Kara cracked her eyes open, but everything was blurry, so she closed them again. Her head was killing her, and the spot above her right ear was throbbing. Everything hurt. Raising her hand to it, she hissed when her fingers touched the sore area. It felt wet and gooey, and she brought her fingers down so she could see it. Even blurry, it looked like blood. “Damn… was I hit by a Bordok?” Blinking her eyes repeatedly until her eyes started to focus again, Kara slowly rose to her feet, using the scattered crates as support. “The Mandalorian…” Of course, she was nowhere in sight. From what she could tell, she was alone in the room, her blasters still discarded against the wall and the device nowhere in sight.

“Dank farrik…” Forcing herself to her feet, Kara staggered towards her blasters. She felt naked without a weapon.

Kara had no idea how long she was out, and that was a concern, especially since she had a bad feeling, and her gut never failed her – she had to leave. She could track the Mandalorian once she was back in her ship. Reaching for the door’s control panel, she pressed her stolen keycard in, but there was only a long beep instead of the click that she was expecting, the one that meant the door was open and that she was free to go.

“No, no, no…” Kara removed the key and pressed it in again, only to have the sensor beep once more, a bright red light blinking at the bottom of it. “Dank!” Kara slapped hard with the palm of her hand at the blinking control, but nothing changed. Leaning against the door, defeated, the blonde closed her eyes in resignation. That was it. There was no way she could escape now. She would be caught soon, and her chances of talking her way out of this were very slim, but not all was lost, not yet.

Undoing one of her left leather bracer straps, Kara pulled it up, revealing a small transmitter strapped to her tanned wrist. Pressing on it with her fingertip, a three-dimensional menu popped up, full of colorful buttons. A touch on a green button to the right opened a predefined frequency.

“Krypto, do you copy?” A flurry of excited beeps and whistles greeted her from the other side. “Yeah, yeah, I missed you too. Listen, things are getting complicated around here.” Frantic beeps interrupted her, and Kara had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. “I know, I know, I should have left sooner, but it couldn’t be helped. Now listen to me: if I don’t make it back before sundown…” the blonde shook her head and what was left of her messy bun came undone. Dank, she didn’t want to do this. “Send a distress signal to Commander Danvers. I will need extraction.”

There was a slight pause that was promptly followed by frantic beeping. Kara sighed, exasperated. “Yes, Krypto, my sister! Do you know any other Commander Danvers?”

More beeping followed, and this time Kara did roll her eyes. “You sound like my mother!” Stern beeping was her answer. “Yes, yes, I will be careful, I promise. Now, send me the frequency of the Nite Owls transmitters, and hurry.” Kara cut off the transmission before Krypto, her modified BB-20 droid, asked any more questions. She was sure her mother had tempered with its core settings to admonish her as only she could.

A blue code popped above the menu a few seconds later, and Kara pressed on it. The code transformed into a neon blue window, ready to record whatever message she had. She hoped this would work. These smugglers weren’t very bright, but what they lacked in intelligence, they sure compensated for it with unforgiving violence, and right now, that cunning Mandalorian was her only way out of a slow and painful death sentence.

##

Di’Ann pressed her finger against the sensor and locked the ship’s safe cabinet with a sense of satisfaction. The device was safely locked inside and ready to be delivered to her people. Her mother would be pleased, and she should be feeling pleased too, so why wasn’t she? The mission was successful; it went smoothly, without any hassles, so why was she feeling guilty about leaving the annoying woman behind at the mercy of those thugs?

“She would not give you a second thought if it had been the other way around, so stop.” Di’Ann admonished herself softly, but any thoughts of guilt were dismissed when her ribs protested at the sudden movement of removing her weathered red helmet. She grimaced as it came off with a soft swooshing sound. “Di’Kut… There’s nothing to feel guilty about.”

Taking a few deep breaths to keep the discomfort under control, Di’Ann ran her gloved fingers through her mid-length chestnut hair, messing it up as she walked towards the bridge. She hated how it always looked so neat and sleek when pulled back from being inside the helmet. She wanted to leave this forsaken place as soon as possible, and once she was safe and far away from it, she could check on the damage the woman had inflicted on her side. Damn, she punched hard! Sitting carefully on her pilot seat, she quickly activated the ship’s controls. Instruments flared to life with beeps and bright lights, and the engines whined softly in the background. It was time to go home.

A blinking light on her control panel caught her attention, and she realized it was the ship’s holographic messenger. The red light indicated that whatever message was waiting for her was on the Nite Owl’s secret frequency. Was someone calling from home? Her sister, perhaps? Curious, Di’Ann touched a button, a gentle smile coming to her lips at the thought of seeing a familiar face. She was more than used to being away for lengthy periods, but she always missed home.

A disrupted 3D image came up from the holo-messenger, but she couldn’t make any of it, the sound coming out as crackling bits and the image distorted. The warrior pursed her lips in frustration: she needed to get that fixed. Her last narrow escape from pirates had damaged it when they shot her ship just before she made the jump. Slapping the side of the projector, the image trembled and vanished, only to come back a second later with perfect resolution and sound. Di’Ann’s smile dropped from her lips instantly.

On the colored image in front of her was the annoying woman she had just left unconscious at the smuggler’s lair. How did she even know her frequency? The face on the hologram smiled charmingly, perfect white teeth showing. Her hair was undone and messy, and she could see the trickle of blood falling down the side of her face and neck.

 _“Hi! You seem to have left me in a bit of a situation here. Not nice, by the way.”_ The woman kept smiling, and Di’Ann could swear her eyes were twinkling with amusement. _“But you see, we have a problem. I need to get out of here, now, or I’m in for an awful experience with these guys. I know you think it’s none of your business, but you need the code key that makes your little device work.”_ A thin, rectangular metal piece coming into view in front of the woman’s face. _“If you want this, come get me fast. If not, just leave me here to rot, but good luck trying to crack Sith encrypted code to get that thing running without this._ ” There was a muffled sound, and the woman looked over her shoulder, her smile faltering. _“Chrono is ticking, Mandalorian. Don’t waste time.”_ The woman’s face came closer on the hologram, those bright blue eyes boring right into hers. _“Please?”_ Just as the message was interrupted and the hologram went blank, loud voices and noise were heard in the background.

Cursing softly in Mando’a, her native language, Di’Ann jumped off her seat at breaking neck speed, heading out for her quarters, where the safe was located. Taking it off from inside the locked cabinet quickly, she set the dark cylindrical device on her bed and pressed all the buttons along the side of it several times and using different combinations, but nothing worked. Turning it around, hoping to find some other control, hopefully, a switch, but all she saw was a slot, one meant for a thin, rectangular key.

“Osik!” Di’Ann punched the mattress hard, dropping the device on it. Running her hand over her hair, messing it up even further, she drummed her fingers over the cylinder, glaring at the open door of her spartan quarters. “Seems like I have a rescue mission now…”

Striding purposely back to the bridge, Di’Ann replayed the blonde’s holo-message one more time. While listening to the woman’s admittedly pleasant voice, she shut down the engines and placed her red helmet back over her head. Before leaving the ship, she stopped by the armory to retrieve her assault rifle and a few thermal detonators. Undoubtedly, the pirates would have reinforced the security, and she would have to blast her way in. Or out.

Grinding her teeth, Di’Ann left her ship and headed to where her stolen speeder was discarded behind the yellow trees that hid the ship from view. She was going to get the woman out, retrieve the device’s code key, and then was going to shoot her for all the trouble she was putting her through. She should be on her way out of this disgusting city, not going back to it!

##

Kara spat a mouth full of blood, but that didn’t stop her from chuckling, amused. “It’s funny that you’re scared of a creepy old man like Jo’Nezz.” She was down on her knees, with her wrists and ankles tightly bound behind her back with a rough, scratchy rope. Nikk Seru had been using her as his personal punching bag since he found her in the storage room, and every inch of her body hurt. She had a split lip, she could tell, and from the blood dripping down her eye, probably a cut on her brow too, and was that a loose molar? Sure felt like it. Her abs and ribs were sore from all the punching and kicking. For sure, she had a few cracked ribs. That was going to be a pain to handle on her escape. She would just have to suck it up – no way around it.

The bulky Ygrezz surged forward, his light grey fingers wrapping around her throat in a death grip, almost lifting her from her kneeling position. “I am NOT afraid of that crook!” Nikk hissed, spit falling from his enraged dark lips.

“Sure, let’s go with that…” she rasped, struggling to catch her breath.

“I know you’re working for him! You won’t worm your way out of it this time, Human!” The grey-skinned humanoid tightened his grip, his big oval black eyes furious. “I’m going to enjoy watching the K’Tarks tear your flesh apart!”

No, she probably wouldn’t talk her way out of it this time, but that didn’t stop her from trying. She might not even survive the next few minutes if he kept squeezing that hard, but she could always try to buy time until the Mandalorian came back for her. She wouldn’t leave without the code key because the device was useless otherwise. Surely the woman was aware of that. It was her only chance at a fast escape. “T—that’s for Hidd to decide, n—not you. I—I’m his best h—hacker… He’ll k—kill you if you hurt me…”

The short, bulky man growled, infuriated, his fingers digging deeper. Kara gasped for air.

“Nikk! She’s right! Hidd will throw you at the K’Tarks himself if you just deliver her body, no matter the accusation! You know how he feels about her. She brings him great profit and fame!”

She had never been this happy to hear Choss’s annoyingly nasal voice. She could kiss him right now. Well, maybe blow him a kiss from afar. He rarely bathed and was rather disgusting. “He’s right…” 

But the hand on her neck didn’t relent. Oxygen was becoming a serious problem, and she was starting to feel lightheaded. Tiny black dots began dancing behind her eyes, and her eyelids grew heavy. Her lungs were burning from the hardship of trying to suck in much-needed oxygen, but the sharp pain around her neck was the worst. She feared Nikk might crush her throat before she would asphyxiate to death. At least it would be faster than agonizing from lack of air.

“Nikk, we found nothing in her quarters! And why would she be locked inside the storage room without the device? She could be telling the truth! Let go of her!”

She could feel her body growing numb and her thoughts getting fuzzier. She wanted to remember all of those she loved, to ask for their forgiveness for leaving without saying goodbye, but it was too hard. Her brain wasn’t cooperating anymore. Her body started to surrender to the darkness consuming her when the sound of rushing boots hitting the floor heavily reached her ears, and the hand crushing her throat relaxed almost immediately.

Her body dropped carelessly, and her head hit the cold floor with a soft thud. There were shouts and screaming and the distinctive high pitching sound of blasters piercing through the air from somewhere close. It sounded like she was in the middle of a war, but all she could care about was getting much-needed oxygen, her lungs greedily inhaling and exhaling. Breathing never felt this good before.

She was still catching her breath when silence descended around her. Forcing her eyes open, blue orbs focused on a pair of steely red boots that came to a stop in front of her. A slow, crooked smile shaped her lips. “You got the message…” Kara winced at the croaky sound of her voice. She sounded like old Jo’Nezz!

“Where’s the code key?” Came the disembodied, accented voice of her rescuer. 

She had noticed the accent before when they first spoke. It was cute. Kara chuckled, but a wince followed shortly – it hurt. “Not until I’m safe.”

The steely boots stepped over her fallen body, and it didn’t take long for her hands and feet to be released. “Can you walk?”

Kara’s hand flew immediately to her neck, touching it protectively - it had been too close this time. “I’ve had worse.” Forcing herself to a sitting position, the blonde wiped the blood from her eyes, looking around, but her hand stopped in mid-motion when her eyes caught on Choss and Nikk slumped on the floor, unmoving, a pool of blood slowly expanding from under them. Her blue eyes grew. “Crap, you killed him.”

“He shot at me,” the Mandalorian replied in a conversational tone, almost as if she was talking about something as mundane as the weather and not the death of the brother of the most dangerous smuggler in the Outer Rim. “More are coming.” The warrior stopped, staring at the blank wall as if she could see through it. “We need to move out, now.”

Kara slowly made her way to her feet, her eyes closing against the pain screaming from every little inch of her body. The Mandalorian moved fast to the door, blaster ready to shoot whoever stood in her way. “Hidd is going to be pissed.” Kara shuffled to her side, but the woman kept looking out the door. “That was the only brother he had left.”

“That’s your problem, not mine.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “You killed him, not me! I was about to be killed myself!” The woman turned her head to look at her, and even though she couldn’t see her face because of the helmet, she knew she was glaring. That made her smile. “How about if you share that fancy rifle you have there. I’m rather good with those, and we have a better chance of escaping if there’s two of us shooting.”

She held out her hand, but the woman just kept staring at her. The sound of running boots hitting the hall outside was unexpectedly loud, followed by someone shouting orders for runners to get immediate backup from town. It seemed the Guild had lost the ability to communicate with the exterior. Smart Mandalorian. Kara’s smile slowly lifted the corners of her lips, and her bloodied hand was shaking slightly from the effort, but she waited. The woman didn’t have much choice.

The sounds of guards approaching were closer now. The Mandalorian’s shoulders slumped a trifle, but the woman unstrapped her rifle and thrust the weapon onto her waiting hand. “I believe you know how to work with it.”

Kara wrapped her hand around the silver weapon gleefully. She had never used a Mandalorian rifle before, but she knew all about it. Slowly going down on one knee, a grimace of pain on her face, Kara leaned on the other side of the open door and loaded the weapon. Cleaning her eyes with the back of her hand to clear them, Kara positioned her right eye over the scope and waited.

Two guards, humans, rounded the hall seconds later. They were down the moment they came into Kara’s line of shot, only seconds apart. A few more arrived after, and Kara shot them too, with the Mandalorian taking another one down.

“I think the coast is clear,” Kara said, her ribs protesting when she shifted to get up. She inhaled deeply. “It’s now or never, Nite Owl.”

The Mandalorian signaled with her head. Kara silently left the room, shuffling ahead of the warrior with the rifle pressed against her shoulder and ready to shoot whoever was unfortunate to cross her way. They moved in perfect sync, almost as if they’d been doing this for years and hadn’t just met. Along the way, they were attacked several times but were quick to dispatch their opponents. Kara was deadly with a rifle, and she knew it, and the Mandalorian was just as good with those blasters. They had slightly rounded the corner of the corridor that would take them straight to the exit when the strident chime of the alarm went off.

“Crap! We have to make a run for it before more guards arrive. If they can get reinforcements from town and barricade us in, we’ll never make it!”

The Mandalorian turned her head, and she presumed she was being glared at again. “Run faster, then!”

Kara scowled: she was trying to! “Hey, I just took a beating and ran from that cell while shooting this beauty and clearing our way, all the while keeping up with you!”

It was how the woman looked away and dismissed her, telling her the Mandalorian was not impressed with her endurance after being beaten to a pulp by the Ygrezz.

“I slowed down for you,” the woman spoke softly, but before Kara could get a word out, she went on, “go. I’ll follow you.”

Kara narrowed her eyes, suspicious. Why was she letting her go knowing there was a chance she could escape with the key? “Why? What are you going to do?”

The Mandalorian removed a circular, steel-colored object from inside her leather belt pouch. Kara’s eyes grew: a thermal detonator.

“I need to make sure you don’t get blown to pieces before I get the code key. Go!” 

Kara smiled charmingly, her eyes twinkling. “You have such a way with words.” The blonde checked her surroundings: from where she was, she could see the bodies of the dead guards lying at the gates, keeping them from closing. “Don’t take long, Mandalorian. This place will be swarming with guards in no time.”

The woman seemed to ignore her, keeping watch with her blaster raised and ready to use. Kara took a deep breath and made a run for the gates, and she was almost out of the building when the shooting started. It sounded like several of Hiss’s goons came in from the other side of a large corridor. She kept running for the open gates as fast as she could, but a burning pain shot up from her thigh, knocking her down with a yelp of pain.

Grunting at the sharp pain, Kara twisted her body around and aimed quickly. The first man that popped up from behind the wall fell back with a deadly blast to the head. Firing several aimless shots to where the smugglers were taking cover, the blonde dragged herself over the floor until she reached the gates, trusting the Mandalorian to keep her safe. She did want the code key, after all.

Finally, outside the gates and momentarily safe, Kara pushed herself up to a standing position, grinding her teeth to keep from screaming at the burning pain. She leaned heavily against the door but didn’t even bother looking down at her leg. Kara knew she had a nasty wound - it was burning like the sting of firebees. Taking position, she pointed the Mandalorian’s rifle to where the smugglers were hiding, now shooting at the warrior hunching behind a metal crate.

Billy, a scruffy looking Human, ventured outside the safety of the walls they were hiding behind. She knew what his plan was: keep low, crawl out of sight while the others kept the target distracted, and then position himself to take the shot – it was his favorite way to kill. _Not today, Billy._ Kara adjusted her aim and fired a single shot just as he started to crawl out. He fell, unmoving. Without taking her eyes off the scope, Kara shouted at the Mandalorian. “Now!”

The woman hurried to set up the detonator somewhere behind the crates around her. She then sprinted from her hiding place while Kara kept shooting at the smugglers to force them to take cover. As the Mandalorian sped past her, Kara turned around and started to run as fast as her injured leg allowed her, knowing the smugglers were all scrambling to chase them down, and the detonator was seconds from going off. Strong fingers found her hand unexpectedly and wrapped firmly around it, pulling her along, but she didn’t have the time to register the warmth of the soft red leather gloves touching her skin. One moment she was shuffling away from the building in an awkward and painful run; the other, she was being swept off her feet by the force of the explosion and then violently slammed down on the ground seconds after.

##

Dazed blues eyes cracked open, but everywhere they looked was a blur of bright colors and shadows. Kara was faintly aware that she might have been knocked out for the second time that day, but she wasn’t sure. There were muffled sounds from around her, screaming and low, deep sounding blasts that she fuzzily recognized as secondary explosions triggered by the detonator. Kara shook her head slowly, long fingers pressing against her ear to clear the sounds around her. Warm liquid trickled down from her forehead to her cheek, and she could taste blood in her mouth again.

Strong hands grabbed her arm and pushed her up onto a kneeling position. She fought the grip on her arm with a clumsy hand, but then her clearing eyes caught on a glimpse of shiny red armor and a helmet, and she relaxed.

“Stop fighting me!” Came the disembodied, accented voice. It sounded exasperated, and it brought a smile to her lips, for some reason.

“Bossy…” Kara grumbled, not fighting the woman when a long arm wrapped securely around her waist, holding her upright. She was met with silence, but she would forever swear the woman was scowling under that red helmet. She just knew it in her guts.

They escaped down a path leading into the dark forest of Okru trees located to the side of the Guild, moving as fast as they could to get away from the smugglers, a feat not made easy by Kara’s injuries and the darkness around them. It was pitch black in the forest, the dense canopy of the large yellow trees preventing the faint light of the waxing moon from breaching in, but the Mandalorian seemed to know exactly where to go. When they finally came to a stop in front of the outlines of what looked like a beaten-up speeder that had probably seen better days, Kara was breathing hard, drops of sweat trailing down her face and back. Leaning against the closest tree, the blonde closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath. She was sore all over, and her leg was killing her. She didn’t think she could take another step.

However, when she opened her eyes, Kara was faced with the smudged barrel of a blaster pointing at her chest. She frowned: “What?”

The Mandalorian made a gesture with her free hand. “The rifle.”

Kara tried to raise her eyebrows, but even that hurt. “You could just ask, you know, no need to point your weapon at me.”

But the woman remained silent and motionless. It was unnerving to have to deal with someone whose face you couldn’t see. “Fine.” Without making any harsh movements, Kara gave her back the rifle. “Can we go now? It’s not wise to lounge around. They have night goggles.”

“Give me the key. We part ways here.”

Maybe a crooked grin was not what the Mandalorian was expecting from her, but that’s exactly what she gave her. “It’s useless without me.”

The blaster moved to her head. “I won’t ask again.”

Kara raised both hands in a soothing gesture, even if it hurt like hell. She just wanted to go back to her ship and curl somewhere until it stopped hurting. “I’m serious. It’s a safety measure. You need the right code to activate the key, or it self-destructs.” Kara shrugged almost helplessly. “I had to make sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands. And no, I can’t give you the code. It’s not something I can just spell out.”

The Mandalorian cursed softly in her native language. Stepping forward, she pressed the weapon against Kara’s forehead. “If you’re tricking me, pirate, Hidd Seru, and his K’Tarks will be the least of your worries. Do we understand each other?”

Kara nodded, forcing a smile off her face. No point in antagonizing the woman any further. She was already taking a significant risk by keeping her on a need-to-know basis. “Perfectly.”

The Mandalorian motioned with her weapon to the speeder. “Drive.”

“Drive?” Kara blinked. “But I don’t know—”

“I’ll tell you where to go. Move.”

A faint boom sounded somewhere in the distance, and they both looked up, despite the darkness around them. Kara stared at the Mandalorian. “How many detonators did you leave in there?”

“Just one. Move.”

Kara nodded, wondering what was in those crates by the gates. Nikk had been very secretive of them, and the only reason they were left by the gates was that they were being moved to a new location the following day, and knowing Nikk was utterly loyal to his only brother, it could only mean Hidd was up to something. Limping heavily to the speeder, Kara sat at the driver’s seat, rotating her body so that her sound leg went over the vehicle without putting unnecessary pressure on her injured leg. Taking a deep breath, the blonde pursed her lips tightly and pulled her injured leg up with both hands. A soft gasp of pain escaped when her leg moved. She still couldn’t see the wound on her thigh, but she could feel the blood soaking her pants, and the burning feeling was agonizing.

The Mandalorian took the seat behind her, the blaster pressing against her sore rib cage with enough force to make it uncomfortable. “Go.”

“You know, I appreciate how much you trust my driving skills, but care to explain how I am supposed to drive this thing in a dark forest?” Kara protested, but she started the speeder anyway.

“The path clears right ahead. Go.”

Kara smirked, grumbling under her breath as the speeder moved forward. She hoped they didn’t crash somewhere in this dark forest and be left at the mercy of Seru. He would have none for them.

##

Inside the Mandalorian’s Kom’rk fighter,

Somewhere in the Okru forest,

Waiting for the woman’s return, Kara looked around quickly, trying to commit every little thing to memory, just in case she might need it. She was intimately familiar with the layout of the formidable Kom’rk class, the Mandalorian’s famed fighters. Still, she also knew that sometimes pilots would change little things here and there to make it homier for them, and those minor changes could be lifesaving in a time of need.

She pulled at the cuff holding her wrist to the chair she was sitting on one more time, but the thick metal didn’t budge. She knew it was useless, but she couldn’t help herself. It was her survival instinct telling her to keep on fighting, to keep on trying even when all hope was gone. It had saved her countless times from horrible fates, very often in the nick of time.

Not that she was worried. Despite their gruff manners, Mandalorians had a reputation for being fair and honorable. Most of them anyway. She had met an exception to that rule a long time ago, and that had not been pretty, but this one… She had a feeling this one would honor her part of the deal as long as she kept hers, and Kara would. She needed to go back to her ship and tend to her wounds, preferably before sundown. Kara didn’t want Krypto to send the distress signal to Alex, but that order wouldn’t be canceled until she was safely inside her ship. That had been a hard lesson to learn.

Kara finally dared to look down at her leg. The sight made her wince: across her mid-thigh was a mess of burnt and torn flesh and blood. No wonder it was hurting so much. She had to patch that up quickly before it became exposed any longer. She was risking infection, and things could get really ugly for her before she could make it home, even using hyperspace.

“Wonder if she’ll let me use her med-kit…” Kara grumbled, trying to find a comfortable position for her battered body, but nothing worked, and her killer headache wasn’t helping either. “Surely it has bacta… Everyone has bacta…”

“The key.”

Kara was pulled out of her thoughts by the now familiar sound of the disembodied voice of the Mandalorian. The woman stood in front of her, the device held securely in her hand.

Kara pulled on her cuff and pointed at it with a smirk. “I’m going to need both hands to work on that.”

The Mandalorian placed the device on a small support table to her side. Then, she pushed the table until it was close enough for Kara to use it. “It’s close enough.”

Kara forced herself not to roll her eyes. “Fine, have it your way.” Reaching down with her free hand and very much aware of the woman’s watchful eyes, Kara snuck her fingers on the inside of her knee-high leather boot, pulling out the thin, rectangular-shaped key and holding it out for the woman to see. Dragging the device closer to her cuffed hand, Kara struggled a bit to hold it in place while she placed the key inside the side slot.

A soft sound came out of the device, and a sidelight was turned on. A virtual bright blue keypad was displayed above the machine and out of Kara’s reach, its many keys marked with strange symbols. Kara smirked at the armored warrior. “My hand, please.”

The woman seemed to hesitate before grabbing the cuff and releasing her arm. Kara gave her a bright smile. “Thank you.” With both hands over the cylinder, Kara adjusted the keyboard to a better working size and then typed several commands in a flurry of movement. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she tracked every single one of them on the holo-screen that shot up from the keyboard with the first set of commands, trying to keep focused on her task, but the headache ache wasn’t making it easy.

“You know,” she started without taking her eyes off the screen, “we’ve been through a lot today, you and I. How about we introduce ourselves? I mean, we did save each other’s lives today.” Kara shot a glance over her shoulder at the statuesque woman keeping guard by her side, an easy smile playing her lips. “I’m Kara.” When the woman didn’t reply, Kara just shrugged one shoulder as she kept on working. That hurt too. “No? It’s all right, I’ll just call you Red then.”

“How did you know how to reach me? That frequency is unknown outside the Nite Owl,” the woman finally spoke, her accented voice sounding curious.

Kara flashed her a grin. “Information is my business, Red!” With a flourish of her hand, Kara presented the device. “All done. It’s working perfectly, and if you look here, you can see I replaced the Sith code with Galactic Basic. Code: RED.”

The woman remained annoyingly silent as she reached down and pressed the side button that turned the cylinder off and released the key. Pushing it back inside, the sidelight turned on, and the keyboard became visible. Turning the cylinder toward her, the Mandalorian typed in ‘RED.’ There was a soft beeping sound. Then, the center of the device became alive with bright blue patches of light, a new screen popping out above the keyboard with a single dot blinking on display, waiting for a new command.

Kara nodded slowly, impressed. The woman was paying attention to her every move. She watched as the woman turned the device off again, removed the key from inside it, and placed it under her vambrace.

“Patch that leg before you bleed to death.”

The tall warrior dropped a med-kit on the table before taking the device back onto her hands and disappearing behind a metal door. Kara sighed with relief and opened the red box, rummaging inside. Not that it would do her much good, but at least it would protect the wound from prolonged exposure, and that was enough until she was back at her ship. Fortunately, they hadn’t crashed the speeder, so it could still be used to make it back, but Kara had no idea how far she was from it. Her sense of direction had been lost the moment the Mandalorian sent them back into the dark forest. Luckily, she could track her ship’s whereabouts easily. All she had to do was activate the homing signal.

##

“Here.” The Mandalorian pushed the rifle onto her hand once they made it down the ramp, still holding onto her. There was no way Kara would have made it down without the warrior’s help, not without hurting herself further. She could hardly put her foot down.

Kara frowned, fighting the urge to clean her sweaty brow. That meant letting go of the woman’s strong arm and probably falling in a very undignified way. She probably looked like she’d been stomped on by a caravan of Imperial Walkers several times over. It sure felt like it. “Why are you giving me this?”

“You might need it on your way to your ship, and in case you want to stick around this forsaken planet.” The warrior looked up ahead, searching. “I don’t see it.”

A soft smile came to Kara’s split lips. Was the Mandalorian worried about her? On impulse, the blonde leaned over and kissed the side of her helmet. “You’re sweet, Red,” she whispered. “And I’m not staying.”

The woman’s head turned her way sharply, but she didn’t let go of her. “Don’t make me regret giving you a ride, pirate.”

Kara chuckled, feeling a bit better. There was something about the woman that just made her feel comfortable. Maybe it was the Beskar armor or the aura of mystery around her. Pointing with her finger to the darkness ahead, she said, “It’s in stealth mode. Couldn’t risk someone finding it.”

The woman nodded, taking a step back and slowly letting go of her, extending her arm in greeting instead. “Farewell, pirate.”

Kara took her arm with a smile, pressing her fingers around it gently, close to her elbow, where the vambrace didn’t reach. She wished she could see her face. “Farewell, Mandalorian. I hope we meet again soon, so I can give this back to you.” Kara lifted the rifle with a warm smile.

The Mandalorian gave her a curt nod and released her arm. Without a word, she made her way up the ship’s ramp, which closed with a mechanical thud as the woman disappeared from view.

The blonde watched as the Mandalorian’s dark red and blue ship slowly gained altitude, its large wings rotating to a horizontal position as it gained speed and shot up into the night sky until it was nothing more than a bright speck of light. Pulling on her leather bracer to reveal her concealed transmitter, she activated it quickly. Not bothering to hide her exhaustion, she called out, “shut down stealth mode and lower ramp, I’m coming in.”

The Mandalorian’s offer to drop her off at her ship’s location had caught her by surprise. Kara had been expecting the woman to just drop her in the dark forest and leave her there alone to fend for herself, but the woman had simply asked for a location and ordered her to stay put and not give her any trouble, or she would use the airlock to eject her. Kara was so grateful, she didn’t bother arguing, taking the time instead to tend to her leg wound with the bacta spray and medpatch she found there, but now it was throbbing something fierce, and she was starting to feel the full effects of her injuries and loss of blood. Dizziness was settling in as the adrenaline wore off, and she was having trouble focusing.

Leaning heavily on her borrowed rifle, now turned makeshift crutch, the blonde slowly turned around and limped into the darkness ahead. She was relieved when her black Kom’rk gradually became visible in front of her, the boarding ramp slowly extending out to the ground to welcome her. Bright red lights activated around the rotative wings and the ship’s fuselage. She wondered how the Mandalorian would react if she ever found out Kara owned a Kom’rk, one that had been adapted to her specifications.

A flutter of beeps greeted her from the top of the ramp, and she could see the frantic BB-20 unit rolling down to join her, beeping incessantly. Kara grimaced: she was not looking forward to climbing up that ramp. Maybe she should have asked the warrior for help. Too late now. “I’m glad to see you too, Krypto… Tell Brainy to start the engines. We gotta get out of here.”

##

Kara dropped down on her pilot chair, her hands shaking from the effort of forcing herself to walk inside the ship. Leaning back, she closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath. She needed to check on that wound, but she had to leave this planet first. Her former crewmates may be very much preoccupied with staying alive and putting out raging fires for now, but Hidd Seru had eyes and ears everywhere, and he wasn’t that far away from the Guild. Just thirty miles south of Port City, built between the deep red dunes of S’Ler, one of the largest deserts of the planet, the Arena was Seru’s second home. Build-out of limestone from a local quarry, the imponent building was projected to make it look like it rose from the red dunes in all its white, shiny glory, a beautiful mirage in the middle of an inhospitable landscape.

Seru loved spending his time at the Arena. It was where he planned most of his heists and sentenced those who crossed him into a painful and slow death at the sharp claws of the lizard-like creatures. It made her shiver just to think of it. She had seen the hideous creatures once. Seru made a point of showing it to all newcomers as a highly effective reminder of the consequences of double-crossing him. She believed him when he told her he wouldn’t hesitate to throw her at the creatures, all the while giving her his most charming smile and clapping her shoulder. No one deserved such a horrifying death.

Frantic binary gibberish forced her to open her eyes. “I’m fine… It’s just a scratch… Did you get everything?”

Rapid chirping and beeping was her answer. Kara nodded, relieved. One less thing to worry about.

“If I may, Lady Kara, your biosensor reports you to have a severe burn in your leg an—”

“I’m fine…” Kara grumbled, pushing herself to a proper position. She looked around the console in front of her, several panels on and screens reporting data. Good, it was ready to go.

Krypton quipped rapidly in a string of beeps, sliding his head over his round body to look up at her.

“He will not perform a full-body scan now, Krypto. We need to leave. Take your station.” Kara cleared her throat. “But when you do, make sure you include my molars…” She felt around the tooth with her tongue. It seemed fine now, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.

“I am very well capable of performing a full-body scan to assess your injuries while calculating hyperspace jumping, Lady Kara. Your father—”

Kara scowled. She was not in the mood to argue technological perfection with her ship’s AI. She was hurting, she was tired, and frankly, she wanted to go home already! “You can do all that in a bit, Brainy. Right now, I want you to set course to S’Ler.”

“But Lady Kara, I will have to recalculate the hyperspace jump from a new location, and we might not have time to do it if we need to make a quick escape.”

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem to you, Brainy,” Kara grumbled, flipping on a few more switches, and the engines roared to life. “I really need to figure out how to override that programming…”

Krypto chirped, from its co-pilot station, specially designed for him. The automatic harness wrapped around his round metal body to keep him in place – it had been a request from him after his first flight with Kara.

“Cheeky droid! I know I can’t override my father’s programming on that crystal!” Kara glared at the BB-20 unit. “Doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying…”

The black ship quickly gained altitude as it took off smoothly from the ground, large dark wings rotating horizontally until they were perfectly aligned with the ship’s body.

Krypto chirped, tilting its head curiously at her. Kara grabbed the controls with both hands and steered the ship south of their current location, resolution in her blurring blue eyes. She had one last mission before she left this planet for good.

“Because, Krypto, I need to make sure no one else dies in that hell hole Seru calls a funhouse. Get the proton torpedoes ready. I want to cause as much damage as I can.”

The droid’s light sensor blinked, but Krypto rolled its head back to look straight ahead. The scomp link plugged into the ship’s mainframe terminal, colorful sensors coming to life with soft sounds inside the cockpit.

Kara flew her ship south without paying any attention to the waxing moon and the starry night sky. She usually enjoyed that. It was different everywhere and so much more colorful than traveling the hyperspace lanes. However, she couldn’t complain about space travel: the galaxy was a beautiful place, bright and full of life and diversity. It was truly magnificent if you took the time to enjoy it, which she did whenever she had the chance. She did notice a large, sleek ship, with a prominent vertical fin on top of it, speeding in the opposite direction. She would recognize that ship anywhere: it was Hidd Seru’s pride and joy, a luxurious star yacht of the Mantis class named _Lord_. It seemed news from the Guild’s distress had reached him already. Too bad he was leaving the Arena. She had one last surprise for him.

The white and admittedly magnificent building of the Arena came into view on her radar and cockpit window. Full of bright lights and the Guild’s banners, it was almost like a beacon in the middle of the desert, always visible at any time, just like its master intended.

“Not for long…” Kara locked the building on her radar and fired a set of torpedoes as her ship came closer to it.

Twin red specks of light traveled at high speed through the night darkness, hitting their target seconds after with a massive explosion. Two more were fired when the dark fighter flew over the building’s main entrance, now completely destroyed, hitting the far end part, where the hideous creatures were locked, blazing fire erupting everywhere.

“Good riddance…” She grumbled, her lips pursed in a thin line.

Steering to the left, Kara swung the ship entirely around, returning to the burning structure, and fired a final barrel of torpedoes. There would be nothing left of that awful place if it depended on her.

“Lady Kara, my radar is picking on a large vessel flanked by two fighters and headed our way. I don’t believe they’re friendly. My defense system detects laser cannons being armed,” Brainy’s voice chimed in.

“Crap… Shields up!” Kara glared at the radar, spotting the offending red dots. The Mantis ship may well be a luxury vessel, but it was well-armed. Seru took his defense very seriously. She pulled the fighter out of the _Lord_ ’s radar in a quick evasive maneuver. “Time to go home, guys. Brainy, make those calculations!”

“Already working on it, Lady Kara.”

Krypto chirped from his station, its head sliding slightly from one side to the other. Several bursts from the vessel’s weaponry blasted on the ship’s sturdy shields. The ship trembled slightly, but it held without damage.

“Hurry, Brainy!” She pulled on the side handle, accelerating up and into the atmosphere, the Ygrezz’s vessel in hot pursuit.

##

The Mandalorian ship shot through the planet’s atmosphere into the cold darkness of space at high speed, but instead of flying away from it and making the jump, Di’ann pulled the engines to a near stop for no reason at all. At least none that would make sense to her. She wasn’t waiting to check on the aggravating woman’s welfare, she told herself firmly. They had both kept to their bargain, helped keep each other alive, and that was the end of it. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the injury on her leg and the infection the bioscan in her helmet had detected when she activated it. She was sure the bacta spray would keep it under control until the smuggler could tend to it properly. And it certainly had nothing to do with those mesmerizing blue eyes and charming smile. Not at all. She was simply curious about the woman’s ship if it actually existed. For all she knew, it was all fabricated. Smugglers weren’t known for being truthful or keeping to their word, though surprisingly, this one had.

The soft alarm from her radar made her jump in her seat, and she mentally berated herself for being distracted. She was not a rookie! What was it about this woman? Her holo-messenger beeped insistently, the light indicating it was coming from the Nite Owl’s frequency. A scowl marred her features. It was the annoying woman, she was sure of it, but still, she pressed the button, and sure enough, the 3D live image of the blonde’s battered face came up in front of her. The darkening bruises and bloodied face did nothing to diminish the blonde’s good looks. She did notice her vivid blues eyes were somewhat glassy.

 _“Were you waiting to check on me?”_ Kara smiled brightly at her or tried to, as much as her split lip allowed her to. _“Aww, that is so sweet of you, Red!”_

It was her fault and no one else’s. _“I was not waiting for you, pirate.”_

But the woman just kept on smiling. _“Well, whatever the reason you’re standing there, I suggest you leave now. Seru is hot on my tail, and I’m about to break out of the planet.”_

Di’Ann looked down at the radar for confirmation, and she could see three more dots behind the one she assumed was the smuggler’s ship. Raising her head to look at the hologram, a dark Kom’rk came suddenly into view on her cockpit window, and her jaw slacked. It was all dark and sleek, with red lights around its wings. It was a beautiful Kom’rk. Did she own a Mandalorian ship?

“You’re Mandalorian?” She blurted out before she could stop herself.

Kara chuckled. _“Nope! Take care, Red. I hope we meet again soon. Don’t wait around.”_

The holo-message was over the moment the black fighter disappeared from view and into hyperspace, and a large Mantis Yacht vessel broke the planet’s atmosphere and popped into her shooting range, two fighters on either side.

“Son of a Bantha…” Di’Ann grumbled under her breath, pushing the handle all the way forward to restart the engines at full speed. Flicking a switch, she felt the pull as her ship jumped into hyperspace, right as the fighters left the larger ship’s side to engage her.

Di’Ann pulled her helmet off and tossed it on the empty co-pilot’s seat, slumping in her chair. Exhaling, she stared at the speeding stars. “This has to be the weirdest mission I’ve ever had.” Looking over at her discarded helmet, her mind wandered once again to the smuggler. Of course, she wasn’t a Mandalorian, but why was she flying a Kom’rk? And a black one? The only black one she knew of was the infamous Darth Maul’s, but that one had been destroyed decades ago. No matter. She hoped she never had to see this annoyingly beautiful smuggler. She rattled her in ways that she didn’t understand, and she wanted to keep it that way.

##

Sometime later…

Mandalorian Colony in Nylanda,

Edge of the Colonies Rim

Di’Ann inhaled a lungful of the fresh morning air, a content smile on her lips. Since first light, she was up and about taking her time in catching up with her mother and sister over breakfast, as they discussed the details of her mission. Her mother had been immensely pleased with her.

 _“We need to make sure this is working properly before I send word to our Mand’alor,”_ her mother had said, her blue eyes twinkling with undisguised pride. _“It might take decades, hundreds of years even, but we will have our planet inhabitable once more, and all thanks to you, daughter.”_

She hadn’t felt this good in a long time. It was a great honor to help their ancestral planet recover so their people could go back home. If the device worked as they believed it would, its technology could be reversed to jump-start the planet’s atmosphere. It would take a long time, she knew, and she probably would never live to breathe in Mandalore’s fresh air, but the future generations would, and that was all that mattered.

Wiggling her bare toes happily, she lifted her chin towards the cloudless sky so she could soak on the bright morning sun from the terrace of her room. She craved the sun’s warmth after so many days of space travel and wearing her helmet for so long. She loved being a warrior, and being able to wear her House’s armor as a Nite Owl was a great honor, but she loved wearing her soft clothes more, though she would never admit it to a living soul. By her side, her armor was neatly piled up, waiting for its polishing treatment. Nite Owls always took good care of their gear. It wouldn’t last otherwise, not even the prized Beskar. It was still hard to find the nearly indestructible metal from Concordia. Still, a chance raid on an old Imperial Runabout when she was but a child revealed a considerable amount of imperial ingots stored underground, made of pure Beskar after the Great Purge. Anyone with that much currency would be filthy rich, but her mother had ordered it to be melted for weaponry and armor. Her warriors would proudly wear a full Mandalorian armor once more, not scraps of cheap metal that did nothing to protect them.

Glancing over to the pile of armor, her eyes fell on the red helmet, lingering over the spot where the smuggler had kissed it. Reaching out to touch that very spot, her wrist communicator vibrated with an incoming voice call. She pulled her hand away as if she was about to be bitten.

 _“Di’Ann, I need you to come down to the lab. There’s something I need to ask you,”_ a voice chimed in.

The warrior frowned. She didn’t want to move from her comfy spot. “Is it urgent?”

_“It’s important.”_

Di’Ann sighed, her eyes falling to her helmet once more. Had the tricky woman done something to the device? “I’ll be right there.” She turned off the communicator, a worried frown on her face. “What did you do, Kara?”

##

At the lab,

“What’s wrong?” Di’Ann stormed inside the lab, not bothering to knock. She had been berating herself on her way to the lab for not placing a tracker on the troublesome smuggler. What would she do if she had messed up with the device? How would she find her? How would she make it right?

A dark-skinned woman looked up from the device Di’Ann had brought in the day before and waved at it. “This code is not Sith; it’s Galactic Basic.”

Di’Ann blinked, taken aback. This was not what she was expecting. “So?”

“This device is supposed to be encrypted with Sith Code,” the woman said as if it was obvious.

Di’Ann sighed. Code and programming were not her fields of expertise. “And this is a problem because?”

“Not necessarily a problem. I think those smugglers hacked the code. It’s translated, which does make my job a lot easier.”

Di’Ann’s shoulders sagged in relief. All right, so the annoying pirate hadn’t messed up the device. Instead, she did them a favor. She frowned. Why? Why would she do that?

“But that’s not why I called you here for,” the tech went on.

“Just cut to the chase, Jin,” Di’Ann cut her off, exasperated.

The woman nodded. “The code key was reprogrammed to copy and send the software to an external location.”

Di’Ann paled, feeling lightheaded all of a sudden. That damn tricky… “But I swept the device. Twice. It came out clean, no trace of bugs or malware.”

“No, no bugs or malware. This was reprogrammed to copy and send the software and nothing more. Besides, the emitters on this are short range. If this were a tracker, they would have to be following you from very close, or they would lose track of you. They wouldn’t stand a chance in hyperspace” The woman shrugged. “Just to let you know someone has a copy of this. It may be relevant.”

“All right… Thank you for letting me know,” Di’Ann mumbled, no longer paying attention to her friend, her mind elsewhere.

“Whoever did this is incredibly skilled. Not many out there that can crack Sith code.”

Di’Ann nodded and thanked her again. Leaving the building, she looked up to the blue, sunny sky, both hands planted on her hips.

“Incredibly skilled indeed…” she grumbled, the blonde’s words coming to mind: _‘Information is my business.’_ She snorted. The woman was not a smuggler; she was a spy!

She wanted to be mad but couldn’t. She had to give it to her: the tricky smuggler had found a way for them both to have what they were looking for. She should be mad for being deceived, and more than once, but the smile pulling at the corners of her lips wouldn’t let her. If anything, Kara, whatever she was, a smuggler or a spy, was a resourceful woman. She would make a fine Nite Owl if she wasn’t so aggravating.

“I’ll have to be on my toes around you if we ever meet again, won’t I?”

Still smiling, she made her way down to the lake instead of going back home. She could warn her mother about this unexpected development later. It was a beautiful day, perfect for a nice swim in the lake’s calm, crystal waters. She could polish her armor later.

##

Ogam,

Unknown Regions,

Kara limped out of her fighter, still bruised and feeling slightly sore, Krypto rolling down by her side. The worst was over now, but it had been some rough days. Right after they made it to hyperspace, she decided it was time to finally tend to her wounds properly, starting with her leg. The blonde knew she would probably need Brainy’s droid version to help her out, but her thoughts were becoming fuzzy, and she somehow forgot to ask the AI to activate it before she passed out on her way to her room. She remembered limping out of the cockpit and then nothing. She woke up two days later, in her bed, completely naked, feeling achy and weakened, with a frantic Krypto beeping and chirping gibberish in her ear and a relieved Brainy droid by her side, checking her vitals. It was still an ongoing project, and the poor thing was still incomplete, but she improved it a little whenever she took the time to work on it. Once she was done with her project, it would be a much cooler looking version of C3-PO with several upgrades. For now, it was named KB-1 or Brainy droid.

The droid chirped softly and rotated its head to look up at her as it rolled down. The blonde waved at a few of the techs and pilots nearby, smiling. “Yeah, it is good to be back, Krypto. I—”

“Aren’t you a sight! At least this time, your pilot suit is in one piece.”

Kara turned her head towards the familiar voice and grinned when her older sister, Commander Alex Danvers, rolled her eyes at how she looked, still bruised and limping. She was hoping the finger marks on her neck and wrists would fade before she made it back, but no such luck. Her mothers would have a fit, and then the questions would come and then the lecture, and then she would get her coddling. She would have all the potstickers she could eat for a day or two. Alex often accused her of getting hurt on purpose.

“I missed you too, sis.”

The tall redhead sighed heavily but pulled her sister into a tight hug. “We were worried about you. It was a good thing you sent that message before leaving the Outer Rim, Kara. I was about to come to find you.”

It was Kara’s turn to roll her eyes, but she hugged her sister tighter, swallowing as memories of Niss’s fingers crushing her neck flashed before her eyes - it still gave her nightmares. If the Mandalorian hadn’t shown up when she did, Kara would be dead, and Alex would be flying to Port City to bring her body home. She wished her sister had been there with her, but being a commander came with responsibilities, and it meant her sister couldn’t play spy anymore. Besides, Kara was so much better at it than Alex. Always had been.

“What happened?” Alex asked softly, pulling away just enough so she could see her eyes.

Kara shook her head, looking away. She had never been able to hide anything from her sister. “Things got… a little complicated.”

Alex smirked. “You can explain yourself over dinner. Mothers are expecting us.” The redhead patted her cheek gently, apparently enjoying the look of fear on her face. “And you’re not getting away with it either. Mom said if you don’t show up, she won’t make potstickers for a year.”

Kara’s eyes widened. Mom’s potstickers were the best in the whole galaxy! “Fine, fine, I’m going.”

“Great! Now that we have that settled, do you have it?”

Kara nodded and motioned to Krypto to come closer. Leaning down, she removed a drive from inside a safe compartment on the droid’s round body.

“Hey, Krypto!” Alex smiled down at the droid, touching his head gently.

The droid chirped happily at the older Danvers, rolling back and forth in excitement. Alex chuckled at the droid’s antics.

“It’s all in here.” Kara gave her the small drive.

Alex frowned. “Where’s the device?”

“Long story, but we don’t need the device. All we need is in here, plus the rough schematics for shield reinforcement based on that software.” Alex gave her a look, and she shrugged nonchalantly. “I had to keep busy on the way here.”

Alex nodded as if she were expecting those very words. “Of course. Come on, you can tell me all about it over ice beer. I’m buying.”

“Now that sounds awesome.” Kara grinned. She was dying to go to her quarters and take a long shower and nap, but a drink with her big sister was exactly what she needed right now.

Looking over to her ship, she smiled, wondering if the Mandalorian had figured out yet what she’d done. She would probably never know, but she hoped they would meet one day again soon. Maybe next time, she could convince the woman to show herself. She was curious about how she looked without that red helmet.

Alex called out her name, breaking her musings. Making her way to where her sister and Krypto waited for her, Kara forced herself to think about more important matters. Right now, she needed to avoid her parents from finding out the gruesome details of her misadventures in Port City while assuring her mother would keep the flow of potstickers coming. Her mothers had a way of making her blurt out the truth, and it was downright frustrating!

 _Besides,_ she thought, the warrior coming to mind once again as she gave her ship one last look over her shoulder before following her sister, _it’s a vast galaxy. What are the odds?_

##

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think. Besides, this time, you get to decide whether this story has a sequel on not ;)  
> Remember, getting feedback is as important to a FF writer as getting Kudos :)


End file.
